Fiction, autobiography, and poetry; musings on nation, culture, creativity, art, gender, race, sexuality, language, domestic violence, alcoholism, childhood, recovery, survival, and love; writing, making, creating, and performing as survival, ladder, escape, breath, glue, mortar, framework, and resistance to the mundane; the changing faces and expressions of nicotine, growing up in the postwar Southern US, flying birds reflected in the tops of shiny shoes, and children reading for shelter as a storm draws near ....
This is merely a glimpse of the work and the 10 writers who have have been invited to be part of the Identity Sculptures Project. As the artist who will have the privilege and honor of working with these Vanderbilt writers, I couldn't be more thrilled or excited about the weeks and months ahead. The conversations with the writers have only just begun and I am already moved by the beautiful words, the candor, the bravery, and the willingness to share that I have witnessed.
Myself included, project participants include 4 faculty members, 3 students, and 4 staff members. We hail from the university and the medical center sides, and are 8 women and 3 men strong.
And together, we are moving into the next phase of the project now, as my formal interviews with the writers will start this week and continue through the next few months with the goal of completing all the interviews by the end of 2012.
Stay tuned. I suspect the blogging will pick up now that the in-the-trenches work is beginning.
For now, I simply wanted to post this update. And also to sincerely thank the writers again for their willingness to share the work they have and their willingness to be part of this project. Writers, I only hope to do your words justice as we set off on this creative adventure together!
And once again, many, many thanks to the Curb Creative Campus for making this even possible.
-- lap-d
